# EUR-Lex - 52012SC0098 - EN

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# 52012SC0098

**COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Implementing the Youth Opportunities Initiative: first steps taken /* SWD/2012/0098 final */**

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COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

Implementing the Youth Opportunities
Initiative: first steps taken

Accompanying the document

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Towards a job-rich recovery

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1........... Introduction.................................................................................................................... 2

2........... EU youth unemployment remains at
a historic high........................................................... 3

3........... Implementation of the EU policy
priorities in the Member States...................................... 3

4........... Use of European funds for policy
implementation: first lessons learnt............................... 12

5........... The way forward.......................................................................................................... 12

Disclaimer: This document is a European Commission staff working
document for information purposes. It does not represent an official position
of the Commission on this issue, nor does it anticipate such a position.

1.           Introduction

Implementation of the Youth
Opportunities Initiative has started...

In response to the dramatic rise of youth
unemployment in many Member States, the Commission launched the "Youth
Opportunities Initiative" (YOI) in December 2011.[1] Its key objective is to combine
concrete action by Member States and the EU implementing the priorities
identified in the Europe 2020 strategy, the June 2011 Council conclusions on
youth employment[2],
the 2012 Annual Growth Survey and the Joint Employment Report.

This paper presents an interim account of
recent measures and policies in the Member States with high youth unemployment,
with regard to the YOI priorities, and illustrates first results of the reinforced
policy cooperation with the Member States. It will inform the debate at the
informal Council of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers on 23-24 April
2012.

...with the strong commitment of the
Member States at the highest level...

The Commission President proposed at the
informal European Council of 30 January 2012 to strengthen cooperation with the
15 Member States where the situation of young people is most difficult. For the
eight Member States with the highest youth unemployment rates[3], action teams of EU and
national officials have been set up in order to develop specific action plans
for tackling youth unemployment. These teams have met in the Member States
concerned in February 2012. With the other seven Member States with youth
unemployment rates above EU average[4],
bilateral meetings at technical level took place in February 2012 to explore
ways of making full use of EU funding for tackling youth unemployment.

... and the support of the European Social
Partners....

At the Tripartite Social Summit on 1 March
2012, the European Social Partners have presented their work programme
2012-2014; it includes a framework of actions on youth employment with a focus on the
link between education, young people’s expectations and labour market needs. The first contributions to this framework have been presented by
BusinessEurope and UEAPME; they highlight in particular policy measures
supporting skills development, recruitment and entrepreneurship. ETUC established
a focus group within its Youth Committee, which will
contribute to the framework with analysis and proposals.

The assessment of national policies will
continue in the European Semester 2012

Already in the European Semester 2011, ten
Member States received country-specific recommendations on youth employment[5], and eleven in the area of
education[6].
Member States are expected to report on these recommendations in their National
Reform Programmes (NRP) to be submitted to the Commission by mid-April 2012. The
March 2012 European Council invited Member States to develop and implement
comprehensive initiatives on employment, education and skills; each Member
State will include a specific "National Job Plan" in its NRP. The
Commission will provide its NRP assessment in the Staff Working Documents presenting
the Commission's proposal for country-specific recommendations in May 2012.

2.           EU
youth unemployment remains at a historic high

No reversal of the negative trend of
2011 is in sight...

The youth (15-24) unemployment rate jumped
rapidly from the beginning of 2008, rising from 15 % in February 2008 to more
than 21 % in the beginning of 2010, before easing moderately and stabilising by
spring 2011. The labour market recovery for youth did not last long;
unemployment began to climb again in May 2011, at a faster rate than for
adults. Subsequently, the rate has risen to an unprecedented high level of
22.4% at the beginning of 2012. In total 5.5 million young people are
unemployed, an increase by 265 000 compared to early 2011. The strongest
increase between 2010 and 2011 occurred in peripheral Member States.[7] For the age group 25-29 the EU
average unemployment increased strongly between 2008 and 2010 from 8.6 to 12.6%
and has since remained at that level (12.4% in 2011q3); again the increase was concentrated
in some Member States.[8]
Young people are particularly vulnerable since longer unemployment spells in
the current context have a more permanent scarring effect in their future adult
life, with potential risks of marginalisation, poverty and social exclusion.

... low-skilled young people are most at
risk of unemployment, ...

Young people with at most lower secondary
education completed (these are the early leavers from education and training)
bear the highest risk of unemployment. The most recent figures available for
all 27 Member States of September 2011 indicate that while the EU average youth
unemployment rate was 21.2%, it reached 27.7% for low skilled youth. In many
Member States their unemployment rates are 10pp. higher than for the whole youth
population; in some Member States the gap exceeds even 20pp[9].

.... highly skilled have increasingly
difficulties in finding a job

Although the unemployment rate among young
people decreases the higher the education levels attained, the unemployment
rates for youth with upper secondary and higher education qualifications (18.5%
resp. 17.9%) indicate that the employment advantage for better skilled
individuals has diminished.

3.           Implementation
of the EU policy priorities in the Member States

Despite the generally high attention that
is given in national policies to the youth employment situation, there is less
of a consensus regarding to which extent measures should specifically address
young people. Member States with overall strong increase in unemployment stress
that only an improvement in the overall economic and labour market situation in
their country would then also accrue to youth, for example in Greece and
Spain. Policy actors in Member States which experienced downturns in
whole economic sectors, such as in Ireland, underline that young people
are not the only group struggling to remain in employment. Other Member States
acknowledge that they considered the strong rise in youth unemployment in the
first place as cyclical, but now realise that structural problems need to be
tackled (Bulgaria, Slovakia). In this context it is worthwhile underlining
that there is no trade-off between different groups of workers in the labour
market; well-performing labour markets show high employment rates for youth as
well as prime-age and older workers.

Several Member States put in place new comprehensive
policy strategies for youth seeking coordinated policy responses involving
different policy sectors. The new longer-term youth policy framework in Hungary
focuses in particular on youth employment. In Bulgaria, a national
initiative for youth employment has been launched in October 2011. Portugal
is currently setting up a comprehensive strategic plan
for including youth in the labour market with a substantial allocation of € 1bn, of which € 352m would come from Structural Funds
re-programming. In Spain, the labour market reform of February 2012
includes a wide range of measures such as apprenticeship and training
contracts, hiring incentives and measures to promote self-employment among the
young. Italy is preparing the approval of an overall reform of the
labour market in order to improve in particular youth employment. To ensure a
faster implementation of measures for youth, the country has transferred ESF
funds (€ 311m including national contribution) from the regional to the national
level.

The following sections present an overview
of the measures[10]
recently put in place or under preparation in the Member States with high youth
unemployment along the YOI priorities, and informs of the state of play of the corresponding
Commission contributions (see boxes).

3.1.        Preventing
early-school leaving

Under the Council Recommendation of 28 June
2011, Member States have undertaken to put in place comprehensive strategies to
combat early school leaving, combining prevention, intervention and
compensation measures, by end 2012. Several are developing comprehensive
approaches and report increased efforts, especially in preventing
students from dropping out. However, a balanced and coherent strategy is often
still missing, and the collection, monitoring and
analysis of data and information on the
incidence and drivers of early school leaving, which is essential for
developing more effective and targeted policies, needs to be improved.

Many Member States report efforts to
increase participation in good quality early childhood education and care, and to
extend compulsory education. More individualised learning approaches and
measures such as better targeted support for pupils at risk of dropping out,
early warning systems, and extra curricular activities to broaden opportunities
for learning and personal development are also being implemented. In Ireland,
the School Completion Programme aims to retain young people in formal education
and improve educational attainment.

Measures for preventing early-school
leaving will show effects mainly in the medium-to-longer term. However, the
recent increase of youth unemployment in some Member States is also due to the
fact that many low-skilled jobs have been destroyed in the crisis, so that many
young people leaving education early fall into unemployment. In addition,
vocational education and training streams at upper secondary level often have
high drop-out rates, especially among students belonging to vulnerable groups.
Immediate and effective action is needed to reintegrate these young people into
education or training measures that fit their needs.

Several countries are increasing
opportunities for early school leavers to re-enter into education. Romania
continues its "second chance" programme which shall reach out to
around 29 000 young people, with an ESF envelope of € 100m. In France,
completion of secondary education can be undertaken in "micro-lycées"
(secondary schools) and special programmes will support low skilled youth in
critical urban areas. Poland introduces training vouchers for low
skilled unemployed who are not yet in further education or training. Ireland
implements with the ESF the "Youth reach" programme for young people to
complete their education, which will be further stepped up with additional €
25m of reallocated ESF support for continuation of the programme until the end of 2013.

3.2.        Developing
skills that are relevant to the labour market

Measures focus on curricula reforms...

A major trend in reforming education and
training is the development of curricula based on skills and competences that
are crucial for working life. In addition to introducing a competences-based
approach, Member States are strengthening project-based and work-based learning
particularly in the initial vocational education and training (VET) and higher
education sectors. Curricular reforms are on-going in a
number of Member States, aimed at strengthening
competence-based teaching, ensuring high quality teaching and increasing the
flexibility and permeability of learning pathways. There
is an increasing awareness of the need to foster in higher education programmes
work-relevant transversal skills such as problem-solving and team work,
alongside the acquisition of specialist subject knowledge. Equally,
traineeships and other forms of work experience are increasingly being
integrated into curricula (in the form of "sandwich courses" for
example) and efforts are being made in some Member States to expand more
vocationally oriented higher education provision.

In Italy new Higher Technical
Institutes (Istituti Tecnici Superiori) will start in 2012 with
post-secondary level training in key economic sectors of the country. Poland will
implement a reform of the vocational education and
training system in 2012/2013 to focus on learning outcomes and
foster cooperation with employers and more practical work based training.
At the same time Poland has just started the implementation of Higher
Education reform where employers have more possibilities to be involved in the
creation of the curricula.

...and increasingly Member States launch specific
initiatives...

There are a number of new initiatives for closing
skills gaps. Poland supports maths, science and technology faculties at
universities with ESF projects; so far 45 000 students have benefited from
these projects. In Southern Italy more foreign-language learning will be
supported from the ESF, and in Spain the development of linguistic
skills among young people is considered for future measures under the ESF. Ireland
set up a new action plan to improve higher skills, including the provision of 5 875
free higher education places in ICT, business/management skills and other
growth sectors for jobseeker retraining. In Cyprus, new post-secondary
vocational education and training institutes and an evening technical school
are expected to start operations in 2012 with ESF support (€ 7.8m). Bulgaria
launched a new ESF operation (€ 7.5m) improving the literacy of low-skilled
youth.

In Hungary, a new scheme for supporting
people (18-35) in becoming entrepreneurs will soon be launched under the ESF, promoting
the acquisition and development of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. Portugal
funds training initiatives for entrepreneurship and innovation with the ESF,
and the government's new comprehensive strategic plan for
youth in the labour market also
aims at supporting entrepreneurship and the enhancement of professional skills.

...however initiatives for filling skills
gaps show mixed results...

Member States however also report that
despite high youth unemployment in their country it is difficult to attract
young people to training in sectors in demand for labour. In Bulgaria
for example, vocational training places have been offered with support from the
ESF, but no candidates were found. Low earning prospects and the lack of esteem
for more technical jobs are considered to be reasons why such schemes are not
taken up.

There is still a great need for Member
States to take initiatives and implement policies aimed at further developing
forward-looking labour market tools, to anticipate skills, to enhance the
responsiveness of education and training systems, and to disseminate their
results in order to develop work opportunities for people and to make easier
their possibilities to find or to keep a job.

3.3.        Supporting
a first work experience and on-the-job training

Recognition of the need for stepping up
apprenticeship training...

There is
evidence that apprenticeship-type training performs favourably compared to
school-based vocational education and training (VET) and tends to increase
employment opportunities in early working life. Apprenticeship-type training
also has the capacity to be more responsive to changing skills demands than
school-based VET.

A new study on
the supply of apprenticeships in the Member States, however, finds that
apprenticeship-type schemes which formally combine and alternate company-based
training with school-based education and lead to a nationally recognised degree
exist in some Member States, but that the majority of students in vocational
streams have a mainly school-based training complemented by components of
in-company training.[11]
Apprenticeship-type students represent approximately an 85% of total secondary
VET students and 40.5% of total secondary students in the EU-27. A stronger
emphasis of the importance and use of the workplace training in initial VET is
needed to ensure the future skills supply.[12]

...is reflected in a variety of new
initiatives...

Setting-up a country- or sector-wide
apprenticeship training system is a complex challenge in itself, all the more
in a tight economic context, and does not happen overnight. Therefore, some
Member States take first steps towards such a system by introducing practical
training components in the vocational education stream.

In Lithuania, a voucher scheme has
recently been introduced with ESF support to promote inter alia in-company
training. In Greece and Slovakia, the provision of
on-the-job training after the theoretical education is offered for
graduates from secondary or post-secondary technical colleges. A pilot scheme for a dual VET system is being developed in Spain. Poland introduces a national voucher scheme for access to
vocational training, and the ESF has recently supported 27 000 students of
vocational schools for undertaking a practical training spell in a company.

Cyprus
invests € 16.7m in setting up a new apprenticeship system with ESF
support. France is beefing up the existing apprenticeship schemes with
the aim of reaching 800 000 places by 2015. In October 2011 a new apprenticeship
scheme was launched in Italy; in addition, the educational component in
apprenticeships has been increased from 40 to 400 hours, co-financed by the
ESF.

Some legislative measures are also
introduced, such as in France (increase of the levy for companies not respecting
apprenticeships quotas; progressive increase of the quota for large
enterprises), Romania (more flexible legal framework for apprenticeship
contracts), and Hungary (incentives to employers for hiring their
apprentices after the training period). In Spain, the recent Labour Market Reform includes a reform of the
apprenticeship contracts and training contracts to reduce youth unemployment:
the extension of the age limit to 30 years to get access to these contracts
will be extended beyond 2013 as long as the overall unemployment rate remains
at 15% or higher.

Social Partners and enterprises play an
active role...

Introducing high-quality apprenticeship-type
training requires a close cooperation between national authorities, Social
Partners and enterprises, as has been highlighted in several position papers of
European and national Social Partners. However, there are also different views
among the stakeholders with regard to the ambition of introducing new systems.
In Latvia for example, the government would like to conclude longer term
agreements (4 years) with enterprises for apprenticeships, but agreement with
employers and trade unions is still to be reached. Another concern of enterprises,
for example in Lithuania, is to facilitate the arrangements for
concluding contracts with the apprentice without having the education
institution involved in the contract.

Professional organisations, in particular
chambers of commerce, are in some countries closely involved in the
organisation of the apprenticeship system. In Hungary, the role of the National
Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expanded in vocational education to
strengthen dual training elements, curricula development and the quality of the
in-company training. In Slovakia, there are pleads for a stronger role
of the chambers in introducing apprenticeships. In general, more joint
initiatives seem essential to overcome the sometimes bad image and low take-up
of apprenticeship-training opportunities, which is a problem in some Member
States, as for example in Bulgaria.

Overall, there is a strong interest in
learning from countries with a "dual" or "twin-track"
company-based apprenticeship system as in Austria, Denmark or Germany.
In Slovakia, there is strong interest from the employers' side to
develop cooperation projects with Austria.

The Commission prepares for technical assistance worth
€1.3m to support setting up apprenticeship-type schemes through the ESF.

Traineeships support skills development
and acquiring work experience...

Traineeships and other on-the-job training
schemes are introduced in a number of Member States. Some Member States have
measures in place for people up to 30 years old in order to help university
graduates in acquiring practical experience. In Cyprus, a national
scheme for job placement and training of tertiary education graduates is being
implemented. In Poland, the ESF has recently supported nearly
20 000 higher education students to undertake a traineeship in a company. Poland
introduced in 2010 a national programme for postgraduate traineeships. The Czech
Republic plans to launch a project under ESF which would provide several
months traineeships in companies. In Ireland, a traineeship scheme
allows companies of different sizes to take on trainees for 6-9 month periods.
The trainees retain their previous social security payment and gain an extra € 50
payment per week. Further to this an employer may avail of an 18 month break in
payment of employee social security if they engage the trainee as a full time
employee. Romania intends to introduce further support guidance and
professional counselling, as well as practical training in companies for around
300 000 young people, from an ESF envelope of € 116m.

Work placements abroad are a specific form
of traineeships. A recently adopted benchmark sets ambitious targets to raise
the levels of transnational learning mobility both in higher education and
initial vocational education and training.

Certain Member States also have schemes in
place for providing a workplace experience to disadvantaged young people as
part of active labour market policies. In Germany a successful national scheme
for transnational work placements ("IDA") has been put in place with
ESF support; this scheme is currently expanded to other Member States, starting
with Spain (Galicia region) in spring 2012.

The Commission will
substantially reinforce support to transnational learning mobility for VET
and higher education students (apprentices included) with a view to an
additional 30% of placements targeting at least 130 000 placements in
2012 under Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci.

The Commission has
launched in April 2012 the "We Mean Business" campaign to raise
business awareness of Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci transnational placements
and encourage companies to host European trainees.

... however these need to be of good
quality and must not replace regular jobs...

In Greece, an ESF funded scheme
worth € 54m will provide opportunities to 10 000 unemployed people
aged 16-24 for acquiring work experience through subsidising the social
security contribution. In Slovakia, the ESF-supported scheme for
"Graduate Practice" has been implemented over the past years, but
evaluations of the scheme point to its limited effectiveness with regard to
labour market integration of beneficiaries. Such schemes are certainly welcome
initiatives; however it would be important to shape them clearly with regard to
the target groups and distinguish between placements for jobs or on-the-job
training.

In Latvia, the on-the-job training
scheme for unemployed has led to concerns of poor or non-existent learning
content and replacement of regular workers by trainees presenting a lower cost
for the employer. Similar concerns exist in other Member States, including for transnational
placements, and point to the need of ensuring quality and transparency of these
types of measures.

The Commission services
have launched a consultation on a quality framework for traineeships with
a view to a proposal for a Council Recommendation to be adopted by the end of
2012. The Commision will soon present the results of a comprehensive study on
the legal provisions and practice of traineeships in the EU.

...while there is also a basic need for
setting up measures at all levels.

In the absence of any operational apprentice-
or traineeship systems, governments plan to introduce other opportunities for
young people, for example Lithuania introducing a pilot project on
volunteering.

The EU budget
allocation for the European Voluntary Service will be reinforced in order to
provide at least 10 000 volunteering opportunities in 2012.

3.4.        Improving
access to the labour market for getting a first job

Financial incentives for hiring young
people are introduced ...

Measures entailing financial incentives for
hiring young people, including for the training components within an employment
contract, are more and more in use in Member States and often supported by the
ESF. In Lithuania, the "be active on the labour market" project
for young people providing financial support for work experience and hiring has
been a successful measure (after 6 months 83% of participants were still
employed) that will be prolonged in 2012-13 for around 10 000
beneficiaries. In Greece, wage subsidies for hiring higher education
graduates worth € 110m will be disbursed. Latvia has introduced a
wage subsidy scheme targeted at young people with unemployment spell longer
than 4 months, young parents after maternity/paternity leave and disabled youth.
In Spain, the labour reform provides for tax rebates of maximum € 3 600
to firms creating jobs for young and long term unemployed people. In Italy,
a tax credit scheme worth €142m from ESF has been put in place to encourage the
employment of disadvantaged people including youth in the Southern regions. Cyprus
funds wage subsidies and work experience programmes with ESF support. In
Hungary, the "Start" programme provides a two years social
contribution rebate to employers recruiting career starters.

To promote hiring of
candidates from other Member States, the Commission launched "Your
first EURES job" in 2011 with a budget of € 4m. Implementation in
cooperation with selected EU employment services has started in the first
quarter 2012. A second wave with a budget of € 3.25m will be launched in Spring
2012 and, most likely, a third one will follow in 2013. The scheme will
directly support around 5 000 young people to take up vacancies in
other Member States in 2012-2013.

...but careful consideration should be
given to the modalities of such schemes...

Lithuania,
for example, considers replacing a social security reduction scheme for first
jobholders by wage subsidies in order to provide better social protection to
the young beneficiaries. Romania plans to make the subsidies for hiring
young graduates more flexible.

Adaptations to the legal framework are
discussed...

In Lithuania, a political discussion
is under way whether a liberalisation of the Labour Code could improve access
to jobs for the young, whereas in Portugal the planned Labour Code
reform is expected to ease the labour market access of young people. Labour
market segmentation to the disadvantage of young people being trapped in
sequences of fixed-term contracts and little progression perspectives is on the
policy agenda in Spain and Italy. The recent labour market
reforms in Spain, for example, include the introduction of an unlimited
contract with a training component, which should help to overcome the
reluctance of employers to recruit young jobseekers lacking work experience.

Support to self-employment and business
development for young people is increasing...

Youth entrepreneurship is unlikely to be a
panacea for solving the youth unemployment problem but it can be a part of the
response. To maximise effectiveness and efficiency, policies should target
resources on young people with the best chance of success, provide sufficient
support to allow them to start businesses and provide integrated packages of
complementary support rather than one-shot instruments.

In Greece, € 240m are
programmed with the ESF for supporting business start-ups for up to 12 000
young professionals. In Hungary, a scheme for supporting people aged
18-35 years in becoming entrepreneurs will be launched under ESF in 2012, promoting
the development of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills and providing seed
capital, as well as counselling and mentoring in order to help business
sustainability. In Spain, the recent Labour Market reform introduces the
so-called "capitalization of unemployment": young people may access
100% of the unemployment insurance in one instalment for becoming self-employed.
In Poland, the ESF provides grants and loan schemes for start-ups.

...but take-up is uneven and an area for
further action.

However, in practice take-up of such
schemes is diverse. In Cyprus, a € 6m ERDF scheme for youth
entrepreneurship is heavily oversubscribed, whereas in Lithuania only
10% of loans available in the "Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund" have
been disbursed so far. The design of such schemes is a crucial factor for their
success, and sometimes additional incentives seem to be necessary to increase take-up.

With a budget of budget € 3m of ESF Technical Assistance
the Commission will focus on setting up support schemes for young business
starters and social entrepreneurs.

Erasmus for
entrepreneurs is expected to finance around 600
further exchanges in 2012.

3.5.        Youth
Guarantees

Timely support for young people is now
recognised to be essential...

In the Youth on the Move flagship
initiative, the Commission encouraged Member States to ensure that all young
people are in a job, further education or training within four months of leaving
school, recalling in fact earlier commitments of the European Council in 2006.
Upon reiterated calls from the Commission, the informal European Council in
January 2012 committed to the objective that within a few months of leaving
school, young people should receive a good quality offer of employment,
continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship.[13]

...and there are good examples of youth
guarantees in place...

In Austria, a training guarantee
for young people until the age of 18 was put in place in 2008. A job and
training guarantee for youth aged 19 to 24 under the action programme
“Future for Youth” ensures that unemployed young people receive tailor-made
skills training within the first six months of their registration with the public
employment service (PES) or are integrated into the labour market using special
employment subsidies. Production Schools (some co-funded by the ESF) aim at
reintegrating young people having dropped out from school or apprenticeship or
with specific difficulties requiring special support into the education and
training system. In Denmark, all people aged 16-17 are supposed to draw
up a personal career plan for the period after compulsory education, with
specialised local authorities providing support to youngsters and their
parents.

...providing inspiration for new
initiatives...

In Finland, the government is
launching in 2012 a social guarantee for young people, whereby each
person younger than 25 years and each recent graduate under 30 years of age has
to be offered work, a traineeship, or a study, workshop or labour market
rehabilitation place within three months of becoming unemployed. The budget envelope
is € 60m per year.

...however most Member States need to step
up outreach to young unemployed.

The coverage rate of active labour market
policies for young people is still low in many Member States. The need for
capacity-building and increasing service provision for the unemployed is
reflected in the 2011 country-specific recommendations to several Member States
as regards the PES.

In Lithuania for example, only a
quarter of the young unemployed benefit from active labour market measures. In Bulgaria,
outreach to young unemployed will be improved by facilitating the registration
procedure at the PES. Hungary continues the development of career
information and guidance services offered by PES as well as by supporting career
services for students in higher education institutions under ESF. In Portugal,
there has been a recent reinforcement of the role of PES providing career
information and guidance, enhancement of effective early interventions, as well
as improvement of the cooperation with PES in other countries in order to
facilitate international mobility for young people.

The Commission will
present by the end of 2012 a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Youth
Guarantees and support activation measures targeting young people in the
context of Youth Guarantee schemes at national, regional or local level.

4.           Use
of European funds for policy implementation: first lessons learnt

Enhancing the delivery of measures tackling
youth unemployment with greater use of the ESF is a cornerstone of the YOI. During
February 2012 joint action teams of Commission and national officials met in
the eight Member States with the highest youth unemployment rates. Equally, the
Commission held bilateral meetings with seven additional Member States with the
purpose of exploring for each individual country how uncommitted ESF funding
could be used for specific activities tackling youth unemployment. The
possibility of shifting ERDF funding to the ESF was also raised. In general,
Member States expressed willingness to strengthen their policies to combat
youth unemployment and showed openness to consider the reorientation of
structural funds.

Some Member States have demonstrated
adequate levels and pace of ESF absorption. They have designed and are
implementing appropriate ESF interventions in order to tackle youth
unemployment (e.g. Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal).

In several Member States, a constructive
discussion has taken place between the Commission and the national authorities
on possible orientations for future actions. These exchanges have led to clear
commitments from national governments for a proactive management for the
remaining ESF period in view of improving the effectiveness and targeting of
existing or planned youth measures supported by the ESF (e.g. Cyprus, Greece, Hungary,
Italy, Spain).

For some Member States, there is a need to
develop a clear strategy to strengthen measures tackling high youth
unemployment, including re-allocation of funding between or within Operational
Programmes, which should also contribute to a better absorption of the ESF
funds available (e.g. Slovakia).

For some Member States, while the ESF
absorption rate is high, tackling youth unemployment has not been particularly
targeted (Latvia).

5.           The
way forward

The Commission will continue to help Member
States fighting youth unemployment, in particular those where the situation of
young people is most difficult, by implementing the measures announced in the
YOI and further developed in the accompanied Communication Towards a
job-rich recovery.

It is now important to keep the momentum,
intensify joint efforts among all the different actors in the Member States,
swiftly proceed with the changes in the use of the EU funds and ensure a rapid
delivery of actions on the ground.

The Commission will assess the take-up of actions
aimed at tackling youth unemployment in the upcoming NRPs and present a number
of proposals for country-specific recommendations relating to this issue.

Finally, the Commission will report on the
actions taken in follow up to the action teams at the European Council meeting
in June 2012.

[1]               COM(2011) 933 of 20 December 2011.

[2]               Council Conclusions 11838/11 of 20 June 2011 on
promoting youth employment.

[3]               EL, ES, IE, IT, LT, LV, PT, SK.

[4]               BG, CY, FR, HU, PL, RO, SE.

[5]               BG, CZ, EE, ES, FI, LU, SE, SI, SK, UK.

[6]               AT, BG, CY, DK, EE, ES, MT, PL, SI, SK, UK.

[7]               EL +10pp., CY+9pp., PT +9pp., ES +6pp., EE +5pp.

[8]               BG, CZ, DK, EL, ES, IRL, LT, LV, SI, SK.

[9]               BG 45%, IE 50.5%, SK 63%, ES 52%.

[10]             The EU funding of these on-going or foreseen actions is
in line with the provisions of the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013
(MFF) and does not generate costs above the ceilings set in the MFF.
Furthermore, it applies to all measures listed hereafter in the document that
Member States have to ensure they respect the EU legislation on state aid
rules.

[11]             Study on the apprenticeship supply in Member States,
European Union 2012 ISBN 978-92-79-23166-7

[12]             Cedefop forecast briefing note:
http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/news/19632.aspx

[13]             Statement of the Members of the European Council of 30
January 2012.